Thomas Vaughan (pirate)

Thomas Vaughan (died 1696) was an Irish pirate and privateer who sailed for France during the Nine Years’ War.

Vaughan has been a privateer as early as 1692 by raiding Protestant settlements and briefly capturing the Aran Islands.

[1] English subjects were forbidden from serving foreign rulers against England, so he was accused of treason instead.

[3] Lord Chief Justice Holt remarked, “Acting by Vertue of a Commission from the French King, will excuse them from being Pyrates, tho not from being Traitors to their own State.”[4] Vaughan argued that he was born in Martinique and was thus a French subject, but several witnesses confirmed his Irish citizenship.

Golden's trial was similar, and he was convicted of treason, not piracy though his commission had come from the deposed James II, instead of from Louis XIV, as had Vaughan's.